Despite the many challenges and difficulties the country faced in 2009, eight out of 10 Filipinos are still looking forward to 2010 with optimism, results of an independent survey showed.

In the Pulse Asia survey conducted from October 22 to 30 covering1,800 respondents nationwide and which was released yesterday, 86 percent said they are hopeful of the year ahead.

Pulse Asia said that between October 2008 and 2009, there is an eightpercentage point increase among Filipinos who say they will face the year ahead with hope.

Meanwhile, less than one in 10 Filipinos (7 percent) will be facing the year ahead either with apprehension or without hope.

The survey also found that about half of the Filipino population (49 percent) said the coming Christmas will be no different from the one they had a year ago.

Near to sizeable majorities across the country’s main geographic areas (45 to 53 percent) and across socio-economic classes (46 to 56 percent) say that for them, the coming Christmas season will be the same as last year.

However, a more optimistic sense is projected by big pluralities in the smaller geographic areas of Eastern Visayas and Davao Region (Region 11), where the dominant view is that this Christmas season will be more prosperous than last year.

In Central Visayas and in the combined areas of Northern Mindanao (Region 10) and Caraga (Region 13), those who think that the Christmas season will be the same as last year are almost as many as the optimists (43 percent versus 46 percent and 40 percent versus 42 percent, respectively).

In comparison with the October 2008 result, more Filipinos now expect a better Christmas (20 percent versus 29 percent) despite the various natural disasters that devastated parts of the country this year.

A similar pattern may be noted in the rest of Luzon, the Visayas, and Class D (+10 to +19 percentage points).

Meanwhile, fewer Filipinos are saying the coming holidays will be worse than last year not only at the national level (28 percent versus 22 percent) but also in the Visayas (34 percent versus 18 percent), and Mindanao (34 percent versus 23 percent).

The nationwide survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,800 representative adults 18 years old and above with a margin of error of +/- 2 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.

Sub-national estimates for the geographic areas covered in the survey have the following error margins at 95% confidence level: +/- 6 percent for Metro Manila, +/- 4 percent for the rest of Luzon, and +/- 5 percent each for the Visayas and Mindanao.